Prospective motion correction for ultra-high resolution Time of Flight angiography at 7T under SAR constraints
Hendrik Mattern1, Alessandro Sciarra1, Frank Godenschweger1, Daniel Stucht1, Falk Lüsebrink1, and Oliver Speck1,2,3,4

1Department of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany, 2Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany, 3Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany, 4German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, Magdeburg, Germany

Synopsis

At 7T, venous saturation and magnetization transfer for Time of Flight (ToF) angiography cannot be applied directly due to the increased specific absorption rate. Additionally, motion artifacts can degrade the image quality. A sequence with prospective motion correction (PMC) and sparse saturation was implemented to overcome these challenges. In vivo ultra-high resolution ToF angiograms were acquired, providing dramatically improved level of detail and image quality if PMC and sparse saturation is used. Thus, the proposed sequence unleashes the full potential of ToF angiography at 7T.

Introduction

At 7T, increased SNR and prolonged T1 relaxation times 1 enable ultra-high resolution Time of Flight (ToF) angiography 2. Nevertheless, with higher B0 fields, the specific absorption rate (SAR) increases too. Thus venous saturation (SAT) and magnetization transfer (MT) - commonly used at 1.5T and 3T to improve the contrast - cannot be applied directly. Additionally, higher spatial resolutions and therefore longer scan durations increase the likelihood of motion artifacts. In this study VERSE 3 and sparse saturation 4 are used to reduce SAR and enable SAT and MT. Prospective motion correction (PMC) is used to prevent motion artifacts (more details in 5).

Methods

One healthy male subject, (after written consent) was scanned with a Nova 32-channel head coil at 7T (Siemens, Erlangen). A 3D ToF sequence was adapted to face the described challenges. Full brain angiograms without (product sequence) and with PMC and sparse saturation (SAT every 10th read-out and with VERSE; MT in k-space center/10% of read-outs) were acquired with TR/TE=50/6.63 ms; 25° TONE pulse; FOV 196x147x78 mm³ (0.25 mm3 voxel size); 4 slabs with 25% overlap and 96 slices per slab; GRAPPA 3; scan duration 48:05. Additionally, 2 slabs with 80 slices and 0.20 mm3 voxel size of the Circle of Willis were acquired (scan duration 1:11:02). Due to limited online reconstruction memory GRAPPA 2 was necessary. Therefore, 2 averages were acquired. The study was approved by the local ethics committee. MATLAB 2015b, FSL and MeVisLab 2.7 were used for data analysis.

Results

The axial Maximum Intensity Projections (MIP) with and without sparse saturation and PMC are shown in Fig. 1. PMC improved the image quality and allows to see more details (subject motion is shown in Tab. 1). Sparse saturation suppressed the veins efficiently. Extra-cranial arteries were also clearly depicted (see Fig. 2). In the 0.20 mm3 axial MIP (see Fig. 3) very small vessels, e.g. branches of the basal artery is clearly visible, but the veins are not fully suppressed. The Circle of Willis with both resolutions is shown in Fig. 4.

Discussion

Motion correction and sparse saturation enabled ultra-high resolution ToF angiography at 7T. Intra- and extra-cranial arteries are depicted very detailed in the MIPs. SAT and MT can be applied at 7T if sparse saturation and VERSE are used 4. The subject moved considerably during the extended scan time. The motion range was about 50-times larger than the voxel size leading to noticeable artifacts. Such inevitable motion artifacts were successfully prevented by PMC. Thus, the image quality improved considerably in comparison to the uncorrected scan. Segmentation of the brain led to the creation of data sets showing the intra-cranial arteries for neurological diagnosis, or showing the extra-cranial arteries for diagnosis of e.g. Horton’s disease. Compared to the 0.25 mm3 data, the higher resolution 0.20 mm3 example provides a dramatically improved level of detail. Due to higher vessel SNR (2 averages and GRAPPA 2 vs. GRAPPA 3) in the 0.20mm3 scan more frequent SAT may be required to suppress fully the veins. With offline image reconstruction even higher resolutions can be acquired in the future.

Conclusion

The proposed sequence with adapted SAR management and highly accurate prospective motion correction unleashes the full potential of ToF angiography at 7T leading to unprecedented high effective resolution.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Sebastian Schmitter for his support. This work was supported by the NIH, grant number 1R01-DA021146 and FP7 Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-ITN-316716).

References

1. Ladd ME. High-field-strength magnetic resonance: potential and limits. Topics in magnetic resonance imaging TMRI. 2007;18(2):139–152.

2. Stucht D, Danishad KA, Schulze P, Godenschweger F, Zaitsev M, Speck O. Highest Resolution In Vivo Human Brain MRI Using Prospective Motion Correction. PloS one [Internet]. 2015;10(7):e0133921.

3. Conolly S, Nishimura D, Macovski A, Glover G. Variable-rate selective excitation. Journal of Magnetic Resonance (1969). 1988;78(3):440–458.

4. Schmitter S, Bock M, Johst S, Auerbach EJ, Ugurbil K, Van de Moortele, Pierre-François. Contrast enhancement in TOF cerebral angiography at 7 T using saturation and MT pulses under SAR constraints: impact of VERSE and sparse pulses. Magnetic resonance in medicine official journal of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine / Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. 2012;68(1):188–197.

5. Maclaren J, Armstrong, Brian S R, Barrows RT et al. Measurement and correction of microscopic head motion during magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. PloS one. 2012;7(11):e48088.

Figures

Fig. 1: Axial MIPs for 0.25 mm3 resolution a.) without SAT, MT and PMC b.) with SAT, MT and PMC.

Fig. 2: MIP of the extra-cranial arteries for 0.25 mm3 resolution with SAT, MT and PMC (brain was extracted prior to the MIP).

Fig. 3: Axial MIPs for 0.20 mm3 resolution with SAT, MT and PMC.

Fig. 4: MIPs for the Circle of Willis with a.) 0.25 mm3 and b.) 0.20 mm3 resolution. Both were acquired with SAT, MT and PMC.

Tab. 1: Maximal motion during scan in translational direction (x,y,z) and Euler angles (pitch, roll, yaw).



Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 24 (2016)
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